Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

June 2013

06/28/2013

The two-year sentence handed to Senior Airman Christopher Oliver on
Wednesday marks what I believe is the 22nd completed trial in the
ongoing scandal among basic training instructors at Joint Base San
Antonio-Lackland.

It’s a good place to pick up the interview I did last week with the
Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh III. He talks about core
values – the ideals that all airmen are supposed to live by but, in the
case of as many as 33 Lackland military training instructors, failed to
do.

Every MTI and recruit sees the values in signs posted on the base.
They are “integrity,” “service before self” and “excellence in all we
do,” and were crafted by another Air Force chief, the now-retired Gen.
Ronald Fogleman.

In his “Little Blue Book,” a manual on core values he ordered to be
given to young airmen, Fogleman defined integrity as “the inner voice;
the voice of self-control; the basis for the trust imperative in today’s
military.”

“The Air Force talks about this a lot,” Welsh said in the interview.
“This is what our core values are all about. The idea of integrity,
service and excellence and with respect kind of woven into all three of
those is, again, it’s foundational to what we want to be as a service.

“We talk about it all the time. What we’re doing right now is looking
at – is there a different way as people come into the Air Force to
ensure that the people we bring on, whether they’re officers or NCOs or
civilians, understand very clearly the expectation and standards of
behavior – both self-behavior and behavior toward others – that live in
our service. And then make sure they understand the reasons behind those
expectations and why they’re so important to accomplishing our mission,
which is the bottom line for us.

“But we know if we don’t take great care, better care constantly of
our people, that we won’t be as good at getting that mission done as we
need to be, and the mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars. It’s a
pretty significant mission, and we’ve got to be good at this, which
means we have to have the best people possible, which means we have to
take better care of them than anyone else does, in my opinion.”

Senior Airman Andrew Lira
might have been with dozens of newly minted airmen early Friday as they
marched in a graduation ceremony led by the roll of a recruit band's
snare drum, but he was in a courtroom just off the parade field instead.

He
was awaiting sentencing for having sought illicit relationships with
eight trainees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, one of them a recruit
he seduced while she was still in basic training.

Just after noon, Lira stood before a judge, Col. Donald Eller Jr., and was sentenced to six months in jail, 30 days' hard labor, $1,200 in forfeitures and reduction to the lowest rank.

The
maximum sentence was one year, and Eller spared him a bad-conduct
discharge. If all goes well, Lira, 28, will earn five days a month for
good behavior, meaning he'll be out after Thanksgiving.

A seven-year veteran, Lira was the 23rd instructor tried in the Air Force's
worst sex scandal. All but one has been convicted since the first trial
in April 2011. The Air Force has investigated 33 instructors for
misconduct with 67 recruits and technical school students.

Lira was honored as Airman of the Quarter and Airman of the Year in his basic training squadron, said his lawyer, Capt. Meredith Steer.
The long hours in his highly competitive unit led to Lira spending much
more time with his trainees than his own family, the lawyer added.

Lira's
downfall started when he talked with a recruit in his flight who was
being transferred because of an injured ankle. The recruit, identified
as Airman 1, said she was surprised when Lira, who yelled at recruits in
her all-female flight, made a pass at her.

“'You're too good-looking for him,'” she said Lira told her while looking a picture of her and her ex-boyfriend.

Not
long after that, they kissed in his flight office before she boarded a
bus to her new unit. They had sex in a dorm shower, and met after her
discharge for days at a local hotel.

Lira met all the women while
they were in basic training flights he led, but had sex only with Airman
1. He swapped Facebook messages with the others, one of whom received a
photo of his private parts.

06/27/2013

A seven-year Air Force
veteran pleaded guilty Thursday to having sex with a basic training
recruit while she recovered from a minor injury three years ago.

Senior Airman Andrew Lira
also admitted that he sought to have sex with five other women, all in
technical training, and striking up unprofessional relationships with
two others.

He will be sentenced Friday.

The recruit,
identified as Airman 1, told the court late in the day she was shocked
when Lira, her basic training instructor, complimented her just before
she joined a medical hold unit.

Until then, he had acted as other instructors, yelling and correcting her and fellow recruits in an all-female flight.

“'You're too good-looking for him,'” she said Lira told her while looking at a picture of the woman and her ex-boyfriend.

Airman
1 said Lira saw her off to the 319th Training Squadron, kissing her in
his flight office before she boarded a bus. The squadron is a medical
hold unit.

Prosecutors charged him with having unprofessional
relationships, adultery and two counts of obstructing justice. Lira
could get a year in jail and a bad-conduct discharge.

His case is the 23rd sexual misconduct court-martial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in the past 14 months.

The judge in his case, Col. Donald Eller
Jr., will hand down a verdict and sentence in the second trial he has
overseen this week. He gave another former instructor, Senior Airman Christopher Oliver, two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge Wednesday.

06/26/2013

A military judge Wednesday found an Air Force instructor guilty of
having sex with a recruit he was charged with training, but ruled that
Senior Airman Christopher Oliver did not use force — sparing him a possible life sentence.

Reading a lengthy list of charges, Col. Donald Eller
found Oliver not guilty of forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault
and aggravated sexual contact, as well as obstructing justice. But he
decided Oliver was guilty of consensual sodomy and wrongful sexual
contact, offenses that carried far lighter sentences.

Oliver could get more than 23 years in prison on the charges, plus
two lesser charges and six specifications that he pleaded guilty to on
Monday. But judges and juries typically have given lighter sentences in a
scandal that has ensnared 33 instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland who've fallen under investigation for illicit relationships with 67 recruits and technical school trainees.

Standing at attention, Oliver faced the judge as the verdict was
handed down while his family sat a few feet behind him, their faces
grim.

When the judge asked questions, Oliver replied in a voice barely above a whisper.

While Eller threw out charges that could have resulted in a much
longer prison sentence, Oliver still could be branded a sex offender
after being found guilty of wrongful sexual contact.

Prosecutors had worked to convince Col. Donald Eller Jr. that Oliver
used his position and authority to force a recruit to have sexual
contact with him up to a dozen times through most of basic training.

Senior Airman Christopher Oliver
was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison and given a dishonorable
discharge after he was convicted of sexual misconduct charges at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

The sentence was hard fall for Oliver, a former elite training
instructor, who was busted to the lowest rank, but it could have been
worse.

The judge, Col. Donald Eller Jr., found him not guilty of charges that could have landed him in prison for life.

Standing before Eller and his family, Oliver tearfully apologized.

“I just pray and humbly ask that you see that is not the person I really am,” he told the judge.

Oliver was the latest airman caught up in a scandal that's ensnared
33 Lackland instructors who have come under scrutiny for illicit
relationships with 67 recruits and tech school trainees.

He faced a lengthy charge sheet, but Eller found him not guilty of
the most serious offenses — forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual assault
and aggravated sexual contact, as well as obstructing justice.

Eller convicted him of consensual sodomy and wrongful sexual contact,
as well as adultery, dereliction of duty and having unprofessional
relationships. He may be listed as a sex offender because of the sexual
contact conviction.

Prosecutors argued that Oliver used his position and authority to
force a recruit identified as Airman 3 to have sexual contact with him
up to a dozen times through most of basic training.

The defense said their client, who had pleaded guilty to lesser
charges, only engaged in consensual sexual relations. Airman 3 said she
was assaulted.

The fear she had, Capt. Christopher Lanks told the judge, was grounded in a conversation with her father, an Army veteran who shared tips on surviving basic training.

“She was scared people would find out what was going on because her dad said the Air Force is a small world,” Lanks said.

The spotlight fell as much on Airman 3 as it did Oliver. Another defense attorney, Capt. Patrick Colaw, said she freely engaged in sex and described her as feeling “ashamed, embarrassed, disappointed, regretful.”

06/25/2013

Air Force instructor Christopher Oliver
arranged to meet an airman on a Sunday morning after the all-female
flight filed out of a dormitory on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to go
to church.

Praying wasn't part of the plan.

Oliver took one
last look around the dorm, making sure no one else was there, before he
closed and locked the door to an office that bisected two bays.

“He
stated that if anyone found out he could be in a lot of trouble,” said a
woman identified as Airman 2, who testified Tuesday in Oliver's
court-martial that they had a quick sexual encounter.

One of 33
instructors who've fallen under investigation for illicit activities
with 67 recruits and technical school trainees in the Air Force's
biggest sex scandal, Oliver is charged with aggravated sexual assault,
two specifications of aggravated sexual contact, and forcible
sodomy.Prosecutors said Oliver knew what to do when Airman 2 asked how
they would get together to have sex in the middle of basic training, a
time when it is difficult to be alone.

The
defense didn't challenge Airman 2 as she recounted her encounter with
Oliver in his office or a discussion they had later about having a
ménage á trios with another recruit.

They were to converge on a
hotel between San Antonio and San Angelo. Airman 2 said Oliver sent
photos via text message of recruits he was training, and suggested he
could bring one of the women to the hotel with him.

After she told
him that one of the women stuck her as attractive, Airman 2 said Oliver
expressed confidence that he probably could make things happen.

The prosecution's chief witness in an Air Force instructor's
sexual-assault trial took the stand Tuesday and talked of adopting a
“zombie” expression after their liaisons in basic training.

“I would go blank. I wouldn't think about it. After it would happen, I
would have a blank face on my way to the bathroom,” she said. “I wanted
to forget that it happened.”

The case against Senior Airman Christopher Oliver,
who's facing life in prison if convicted on a sexual-assault charge,
hinges on the believability of the woman, identified as Victim 3.

Oliver is one of 33 instructors who've fallen under investigation for
illicit activities with 67 recruits and technical school trainees in
the Air Force's biggest sex scandal.

The most serious charges against him are aggravated sexual assault,
two allegations of aggravated sexual contact, and forcible sodomy.

Oliver's defense team didn't try to knock down evidence that showed
he was a married training instructor who jumped at the chance to have
sex with trainees, even the recruits he was training.

His lawyers didn't challenge a woman identified as Airman 2 when she
told of a sexual encounter in his office or a discussion they later had
about having sex with another recruit.

“'Don't worry about it. Let me quarterback this,'” Maj. Christopher Eason, the lead prosecutor, quoted Oliver as telling the woman after she asked how they could have sex during basic training.

The woman liked him and wanted to have sex again, so Airman 2 said Oliver outlined a rendezvous.

That was one of at least two consensual relationships for Oliver. But
Airman 3 insisted she submitted only out of fear that he would ruin her
career.

Defense attorneys hammered her relentlessly. They picked apart
disparities in statements she initially made to investigators and later
during an evidentiary hearing, and brought in witnesses to contradict
her testimony.

06/24/2013

A former Air Force basic training instructor pleaded guilty Monday to
adultery and having unprofessional relationships with women in the
latest misconduct scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Senior Airman Christopher Oliver
will battle other charges that include the most serious allegations -
sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact and forcible sodomy.

An Air Force document detailing allegations against Oliver said many
of the incidents occurred two years ago, when he was a staff sergeant.
Prosecutors said he had relationships with four women from March to
September 2011.

He initially saw the women while they were in basic training, the Air
Force said, and continued those relationships while they were in
technical school.

Charged with having sex with at least three women while he was
married, Oliver is accused of using his rank and authority to gain
sexual favors.

The Air Force accuses him of aggravated sexual assault with one
woman, identified as Airman 3, by placing her in fear of her career when
they had sex. Another charge, aggravated sexual contact, states that he
used his rank to coerce her into letting him grope her groin.

The Air Force also accused him of forcibly sodomizing the woman.

He only admitted to having an unprofessional relationship with Airman
3 and that he committed adultery with her. Oliver also pleaded guilty
to committing adultery with two other women, identified as Airman 1 and
Airman 2.

His court-martial began Monday morning while Brig. Gen. Robert LaBrutta
opened a daylong sexual-assault prevention and response stand- down for
around 8,000 military and civilian workers assigned to the 502nd Air
Base Wing.

The Defense Department ordered the services to hold such events by July 1.

Those of you who are familiar with how our business works might
wonder what didn’t get into the story we did last weekend that was based
on an interview with Gen. Mark Welsh III, the Air Force’s chief of
staff.

Well, a lot didn’t get in. He talked more than 39 minutes about the
sexual misconduct scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and the
larger issue of assaults throughout the military.

What he said helped advance our understanding of what has transpired
in the 19 months since the San Antonio Express-News broke the first
story on basic training instructor abuses at Lackland, and I’m going to
share what he said in this space over the coming days – unfiltered, in a
straight-up transcript.

A little about Welsh. He was born in San Antonio and calls Austin
home. His mom, Peg, 83, still lives there. And he has a fine sense of
humor. As our interview began he said, “I was born in (the old) Brooke
Army Medical Center. I’m sure the plaque is still there. I’m surprised
you haven’t seen it.”

I wish there had been more laughs in that interview, but this issue
is as heavy as they get and our series of blogs starts, by the way, as
another military training instructor trial begins later this morning at
Lackland. Here is the first 6 minutes, 52 seconds, with more to come
tomorrow and the rest of the week.

Q: Overall, what has been your reaction to the revelations of sexual misconduct among people in the Air Force?

“It’s not a new problem to the Air Force. We’ve had this problem
along with everybody else in the country for a long time and as a
commander I’ve seen it before, I’ve tried to work hard to help prevent
it and take care of victims and do those things before. I’ve been
surprised lately by the cases that have become public just because it’s
surprising that people who are doing some of the things, like the guy
working in our sexual assault response case (Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski).
We’ll see what that trial turns out, but the guy – he worked here on the
Air Staff – he was the branch chief of a four-person branch that worked
the policy stuff related to this.

“There was a little bit of a characterization that he ran sexual
assault programs for the Air Force. I think that’s a bit of a
stretch. That’s my job and our four-star major command commanders’ jobs
and our command chiefs’ jobs and our squadron commanders and group
commanders and wing commanders and wing commanders and every
supervisor’s job, but having anybody associated directly with the
hands-on policy or execution of this program who would do something like
that is stunning, quite frankly, to me and to everybody else. So every
time an allegation like that surfaces anywhere, it kind of stops you in
your tracks.”

Sexual assault is ‘horrible, it’s completely unacceptable’

“Look, you and I both know the crime is horrible, it’s completely
unacceptable. It’s not something that any of us can afford to tolerate
and nor in my view, the characterizations that the military has
tolerated this is just an improper characterization. It’s just not true.
Horrible cases have occurred, the crime is horrible every time it
occurs, wherever it occurs, and we certainly haven’t stopped the
problem, which is our fault, and we have to fix this. And we’re doing
everything we can to do that, but it’s not for lack of effort and it’s
not because every commander in the Air Force is trying to somehow sweep
the problem under the rug, which is one of the ways this has been
characterized. That’s ridiculous. It’s not because that our commanders
and our legal teams don’t work well together, because they do. The
commander-(Judge Advocate General) team is fundamental to the way we
operate as a service and it works very, very well together. They’re not
great distances apart almost ever, and I think we have the statistics to
prove that, and so some of the things that are most concerning to me
are some of the most general characterizations that just aren’t helpful
as we try and figure out how to solve the problem.

“What we’re trying to do is identify those game-changers in every
area of concern related to sexual assault. And it starts with things
like sexual harassment and lack of respect for people and inclusion and
diversity and those things that make people conscious of treating each
other with respect from the day they walk into the door to our Air
Force, and why it’s so important, and why everyone is critically
important and deserves to be treated that way. And it goes on to how do
you prevent the crime from ever occurring? How do you deter people who
are prone to do this? How do you ensure you create climates of respect
where other people will not allow it to occur or allow behavior that
could lead to it to occur? And then in those terrible situations where
it does happen, how do you make sure you do the investigation properly?
How do you make sure you care for the victim properly, which also helps
the investigation and the prosecution? How do you prosecute cases in a
most effective way so that perpetrators are punished in my view to the
maximum extent of the law, and then how do you ensure that no
perpetrator slips through this dragnet and is allowed to do it more than
once? All that takes an awful lot of effort and then you start with the
follow-up care to the victim, the victim’s family, etc., because the
care doesn’t end when the trial’s over. And so those are the kinds of
things that we’re trying to focus on and we’re working it pretty hard.”